Kabuto Park - Switch Review

Oh my goodness this game is adorable. It’s a short-and-sweet critter-collecting game that reminds me of how I would be entranced for hours by the simplest stuff when I was a kid, and that’s a very precious feeling. What do you do in Kabuto Park? You go out on a beautiful summer day, catch bugs to your heart’s content, and later make them fight. And trust me, that’s all you need for a delightful few hours of gameplay.

The Good – Beetles are so cool!

Kabuto Park is a picture of a simpler time in a world full of ambitious creature collectors. No open world, no hundreds of critters, no elaborate catching mechanics – you pick one out of four areas, see which bugs are possible to catch, and play a few rounds of a very chill timing minigame to catch them. It’s simple, fun and very addicting.

The game is also adorable. The entire game is drawn like a particularly talented child doodled it in their notebook, and it is extremely charming, beautiful and cosy.

Even with how simple the game is, however, there are still a handful of treats to reward the persistent bug collector. Every bug comes with a different size, which means you can easily dedicate yourself to getting the biggest possible specimen for each type of bug; but most of all, every bug has a rare “shiny” form to hunt down and collect.

There are also differences in each bug’s stats and abilities that come into play during the bug fight segments; these are just customisable enough that you can have fun making many different teams of 3.

Honestly, there’s not much else to say. Kabuto Park is a few hours of simple, addictive bug collecting with a little bit of fighting thrown in with some quirky friendly NPCs. The game happens in the span of a month during summer vacation, and it captures that perfectly.

TL;DR

• Simple and satisfying gameplay loop
• Absolutely adorable
• Just enough rewards to make collecting feel good

The Bad – Oh, is it dinner time yet?

I’m going to be honest, there’s very little I can complain about this game. It’s not like Kabuto Park is a groundbreaking perfect game, but it delivers on everything it tries to do specifically because it’s just trying to be a cute, short game that makes for a fun few hours.

The only thing I can really point to is that Kabuto Park could have added just a little bit more content to push the envelope on bug collecting, like allowing us to gift certain bugs to our favourite NPCs to see their reactions or having a couple challenges involving winning with specific bug types occasionally.

Would it be necessary? No, not really, but I was so charmed by this little game that I can’t help but wish it lasted longer! As it is, the entire game can be easily beaten in about 4 hours, but I wish I could have played it for at least a couple of days.

TL;DR

• Could have been extended with a few simple mechanics

Final Score: 8/10

Seriously, what a joy! This game reminds me of some of the earliest phone games that hit the sweet spot between being very simple and very addicting, and I mean that in the best possible way. 

Kabuto Park isn’t the type of game you really sink your teeth into, and it never tries to be, but sometimes rather than a full meal, all you need is a snack to go along with your summer vacation. If you are looking for a short and sweet game that runs on good vibes and repetition, definitely pick this up.

Thank you for checking out our Kabuto Park Switch review, thank you to Doot (via Popagenda) for providing the review code and thank you to our Patreon Backers for their ongoing support:

• Andrew Caluzzi (Inca Studios / Camped Out)
• Bel Cubitt
• Bobby Jack
• Jack Caven
• Nintendo Maniacs
• RedHero